1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for predicting the print colors of a print produced by a printing press.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prints are produced by generating original film plates in various colors including cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K), for example, producing PS plates (presensitized plates) from the original film plates by exposure and development, mounting the PS plates on a printing press such as a rotary press or the like, and adjusting various printing conditions, including printing pressure, dampening water, temperature, etc.
Therefore, complex steps are involved in producing prints. In order to produce a print in desired colors, it has been customary, prior to the production of the print, to generate a proof sheet using a simple output device such as a color printer or the like, and then to confirm the generated proof sheet and adjust the printing conditions.
Since the colors of prints differ depending on the physical properties of the printing bases (printing sheets) and color materials (printing inks) used to produce the prints, it is necessary to generate a proof sheet while taking into account the combinations of such printing bases and color materials.
According to the related art disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-121124, a certain number of color patches are printed on a target printing base and the color patches are calorimetrically measured, whereby a profile for generating a proof sheet for the prints to be printed using a reference printing base is corrected based on the colorimetric values.
The disclosed process requires a large expenditure of time and labor for correcting the profile, because a number of color patches are required to be printed on the target printing base and colorimetrically measured each time the target printing base and the color materials are changed.